support thread for serious decluttering/moving? - Page 3

[worthy]

Awesome, Caitlin!  Sounds like you did a TON of decluttering and simplifying and you're reaping the benefits.  That is so good to hear.

I found a chainsaw-happy friend to come over Saturday afternoon and cut up the felled trees in my yard.  Also I think someone is coming this weekend to pick up a bunch of lengths of PVC pipe that we will not use (10' long, huge) and the drywall.  The pile in the garage is getting smaller and smaller. 

Having gotten the glass doors out of the shed, I can start packing up the shed with "things we need to take with us for sure but not keep out in use while showing the house"...Ideally that would not amount to much, right?!  A few pieces of furniture and some tubs of seasonal and sports-related things.  All of my canning jars, which are not in use but which I do want to keep for use after we move (boxes of them). 

And my grandmother's china {sigh}.  I think I need a spinoff post on that.

I don't think I can put anything cardboard (= chewable) in the shed, but I have a lot of plastic tubs and have been okay keeping off-season clothing packed out there.  Small animals go in and out, unfortunately, so everything there needs to be super durable (like a bed frame) or in rigid plastic.

I am chomping at the bit to do more and more and more.  Unfortunately I can't spare the time to indulge myself the way I want to!  There's work, and kids, and legal matters (divorce), and other stuff I need to do instead.  But I wish I could just take a week and do it all.

Did I mention that I found a taker for our beat-up old utility trailer?  A friend who is buying it with an IOU.  As soon as I find a tow hitch to borrow, I can put it in HIS yard and get it out of MINE -- he is living out of state right now and can't do it himself. 

I am looking forward to "decluttering" the yard this weekend!  Woohoo!  Love it when the bug bites me.  I'm afraid this declutter streak will end before my projects are done.  But I want the house on the market by May 1st or even April 1st if possible, so I do have to keep the momentum going...

[MamaFern]

im going to look at a house on the weekend.. i guess i will know soon if it suits us and if they ill sign a lease. i want to rent at least a year. the house is on the market ATM. but im not sure how long it would take to sell. they are asking a lot. anyways, im still plugging along. im going to visit my sister in a few weeks and taking lots of baby stuff to her which will clear things out a bit. go the back room done (yay) and have maintained my nice tidy room. things are feeling manageable. if we do rent this place its much bigger with a basement that would be good for storage and there would be room for a playroom, which would seriously help us out. the kids LOVe lego and i find it insanely stressful always asking them to clean it up because its dumped on the bedroom floor. anways..just feeling impatient and hopeful.

fern

[PenelopeJune]

I'm going to join this thread if you all don't mind!

We are going to be downsizing again (again!!!) this fall, when we move into an apartment so that I can go to college.

We started out in a 1400 square foot house, then to a 1200 (not a big shock, that move) then 800 and now we are in about 600 square feet. I'm guessing the apartment will be similar in size, but we won't have a big garage to store overflow like we currently have.

So far I have gotten rid of about 12 trashbags full of stuff, mostly clothes. I have a goal this weekend to get rid of another four trashbags worth of junk. (Some of the stuff is pure trash, and some is being donated.)

It's so hard, because I've already downsized so many times! We honestly don't have a ton of stuff, but it has to go, anyway.

[PoetryLover]

Subbing, as we'll be moving in a couple months. I posted on freecycle for moving boxes and have got a couple responses, but we need to pick them up.

[worthy]

So on Saturday, a chainsaw-eager friend and another friend who likes to split wood came over.  Perfect combo.  Then two more friends, who helped me haul the downed saplings and brush out of the woods for the guys to cut and split.  We had a bonfire with the stuff that is not good firewood...and it's Monday and I'm still burning stuff from the corners of the yard.  Yesterday I demolished some huge but trashy wooden shelves in our basement and threw them on the fire.  I also burned some piles of sensitive work-related documents that I didn't feel comfortable recycling.  LOVE LOVE LOVE that I have been able to declutter via bonfire!  (Obviously I'm only burning paper and wood, but there was enough trash wood in our house and yard to justify a big fire.)  It's the first time I have ever done it and it has been very helpful.  I live in a place where it's easy to have a fire, though.

The weather here is unseasonably spring-like and I have gotten a lot of great yardwork done early.  I am sore now!

The big areas left to tackle are:  my walk-in closet (currently a catchall, oops), my file cabinet (can the entire file cabinet be downsized? we will see), the basement (which now only contains random crates and boxes of mixed-up tools and project parts...that will be fun to declutter), and a bunch of plastic tubs that have random hand-me-downs and outgrown clothing in them.  I have a great storage system in the shed for these tubs , but this is the between-season overflow.  I need to whip those tubs into shape and decrease the number as much as I reasonably can.

Also, there are still building materials in my garage that I am working on giving away.

And, the books and CDs, which I have started on, but it's going to be a huge and scary project to completely declutter them, so I am waiting until I am good and ready (and have a whole weekend so I can just get it all done at once!)

Getting ready to move is really hard.  But exciting.  We have been in this house for almost 9 years.  And we are not even moving yet, just putting the house on the market, but all this decluttering and prep work will help with the moving later.

Edited by worthy - 2/20/12 at 10:28am

[PenelopeJune]

Glad you could get rid of all your burnables!

I got rid of only two trashbags full of stuff. I'm two short of my goal. But I have today off, so maybe I can take care of that today. I was actually surprised that I got rid of more of my own clothes. I had been through my closet two or three times already, but yesterday I got rid of several more things.

[worthy]

Two trashbags is great!  That's a lot of stuff.  Nobody can do it ALL in one day.

I love how this is like peeling the layers of an onion.  You declutter as much as you can, and then you look around and realize there is more stuff in the underlayer that isn't essential...and so it goes. 

Not that my house is spotless and without objects!  There is a limit, of course!

[worthy]

I realize I'm being a thread-hog here, and I apologize.  I just need to share what I've done and publicly hold myself accountable for moving forward.

This morning I moved the glass jars from the kitchen counters (two flours, rice, popcorn, oats, granola, cat food, tea sweeteners) up into the cabinets above the counters!  It was so easy, I can't believe I hadn't done it before.  My kids and I will need to use a stool more often to reach stuff, but the counters on that side of the kitchen are nearly empty now!  There is an urn of wooden spoons and spatulas and things, and there is a plug-in teakettle, and the bottle of olive oil that unfortunately is too tall to fit anywhere else because it has a metal pour spout.  That's it.  Aaaaahhhhhhh.

Now I have to discipline myself to STOP working on the house and do my actual work.  I have a court conference today and the kids are coming home this afternoon after being gone all weekend.  Restraint...

[Chalex]

Worthy, I love seeing your posts!  I need the inspiration!  And I sometimes needed to stop decluttering to do my daily cleaning...eek...

So jealous of the bonfires...we are hoping to buy a place in the country next.

On the weekend, I helped DH do his closet.  One trash bag of holey, stained, too small clothes gone!  Whoo hoo!  Also, a box for Sal. Army and some shirts packed for moving.  So happy.  Starting to feel lighter.  :)

We've got construction going on downstairs this week.  At the moment, an electrician in hooking up potlights.  So, I have 3 kids upstairs trying to stay out of the way.  I should probably work on my main bathroom while I'm stuck up here.  LOL. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned, we are actually looking to buy a house not rent.  So, I've been having fun checking out the real estate websites. 

OK---off to clean out the bathroom!  (Oh no, the electrician just turned off the power that connected to the tv, which the kids were watching LOL!  Lego time!)

[worthy]

Thanks, Chalex.  Enjoy house-hunting!!

I keep coming here and posting because it holds me accountable and it's the only place where I feel I can really celebrate my progress.

Yesterday I had a long work-day, but I got outside after work and moved many armloads of sticks to the burn pile, excavated the gunk from an area that will be a self-filling seasonal pond once I dig it out better, and decided my next move is to cut all the remaining stumps down to the ground before moving the mud from the pond to smooth out at area of the yard so I can plant grass.  Hey, decluttering the yard is as big a deal as decluttering the house (almost).

I also took everything out from under our sink and got rid of the junk there, and put some better containers under the sink for catching the leaks.  I had no idea how leaky our sink was until recently.  Arghh.  XH replaced the wet plywood in the bottom of the cabinet several years ago, but did nothing about the leak.  I won't be fixing the sink before selling - that will have to be as-is (too expensive for me to do.) 

My girls keep bringing things to me from their rooms and saying "Declutter this!"  I am so happy about that.

[worthy]

I did more this morning (and after posting this I have to get to work-work)...I moved all of the books out of our glass-doored cabinet.  It's a large cabinet and I got about three tubs of books out of it.  And left some on the bottom shelf because I would really like to reread them in the coming months (plus, books look good in that cabinet).  I moved my lovely pottery mug collection out of the wooden kitchen cabinets and into the glass cabinet where they will be visible.  I also tidied up some other stuff in the glass cabinet so it actually looks...uncluttered!  Still has things obviously stored in there, like flower vases and oil lamps and beanpots and ceramic (pretty) serving bowls and casserole dishes.  But it's not cluttery.

Yay.

Though I realized, in going through those books, that I *will* be keeping nearly all of them.  Egads.

I also did a quick divide of the CDs -- ones I definitely don't want, vs ones I may want and need to revisit and cull a few times.  Not sure yet if I will just foist the remainder on XH or ask him to take what he wants and I will sell or trade the rest.  I'm not willing to discuss CDs and books with him until the court stuff is better underway.  It might be better for me to just hand them over to him for simplicity's sake, but the idea of getting some money for the unwanted ones is tempting.  He has no storage space so he may not even want them.  I wish it was entirely up to me.  But whatever.

Once the CDs are out of their cabinet, the puzzles and a basket of board books can go in there (and off the floor).

The book/CD thing is what is going to hold up putting the house on the market, I'm afraid.  There are so many.  But we'll see.

[sk8boarder15]

Sorry I've been gone for so long! Hard to get on here regularly with a busy toddler and getting a house on the market. But our house is really coming together. Our living room looks AMAZING. I I will post pictures hopefully next week to inspire you. :) 

[worthy]

sk8boarder, I really want to see your pics!!  :-)

This morning I cleaned out the vitamin shelves in the kitchen.  Small thing but they have been cluttered forever.  It was a little job that fit in the time I had.  I can't believe I wasn't able to be so ruthless before with this.  I think knowing we are going to sell/move really helps me be no-nonsense and not be on the fence about stuff.

I also went through my big utensils drawer in my kitchen.  The only thing I could see getting rid of was a set of salad servers that I don't really like.  And some bits of trash, LOL.  But hey, that's one more thing in the donate bin.

Good luck today, everyone.  Do something small if you can't do something big.  Anything helps.

[MamaFern]

welcome to the new mamas!

worthy, sometimes those small decluttering/organizing jobs are what make the biggest difference!

.

so we found a place!!! we can move in april 1st. i have lots to do and i will be away for a whole week from the 16-22 of march visiting family, so i need to get most of it done before. i really want to get more decluttering done and have everything organized and packed away acording to which room it will go in. my kids are so excited to move and really into clearing things out and having a simple space (though our new house is huge compared! 3 floors vs 1 and 2 bathrooms, mud room, basement work shop and out buildings!! anyways. tomorrow im t going to start on it. not sure what part yet. i have a bunch of boxes, so i suppose i will just start packing away kitchen things that we don't use much, summer gear ( i will finanlly have storage that doesn't involve under beds, or crammed into the one closet in the house) my tiny laundry room is a huge mess atm. i did get it fixed up a while ago but it just fell to ruin again quickly. that needs doing. by the end of the week i would like to feel like i have made a start because then i will only have 2 more eeks before going, then a week after. and i still have homeschooling and life to take care of. and, im going to paint and do some things at the new house, so that will take a few days in april before we can move in. luckily i wont rent this house till the 15th so it gives me a few

weeks to get it all done and cleaned and everything.

[worthy]

MamaFern, that is so exciting!  I'm really happy to hear that you have an overlap of time.  Hoping we'll have that when the time comes.  Moving is hardest when it all has to happen in one day.  I'm so glad to hear you are right on the cusp.  Looking forward to our next move but it will be awhile before we are at that point.

Nothing new to report here.  Little bits of jobs as I go.  Today someone is coming to pick up some Freecycle stuff -- drywall and some huge, long PVC pipes that XH never used for anything.  I'm picking away at the basement bit by bit.  Lots of junk down there to sort through -- tools, trash, project leftovers.

Suddenly, putting the house on the market in April sounds like a big challenge.  So much to finish up before then.

[worthy]

I spent more time in the basement than planned.  Got a lot accomplished.  Not ready to get rid of anything yet -- I'm having two guy friends come help me assess what to keep and what to rehome.

I also spent time in the yard.  Cut down several ugly stumps that had been plaguing the back corner of the yard.  Removed two ugly gray drainage pipes and began building a waterfall in their place.  Kids help me move sticks and brush to the burn pile.  We are planning a bonfire with marshmallows later.

I blocked off four long weekends on my calendar (when kids are at their dad's) to clean, paint, finish the big projects, etc.  I'm hoping to get help from friends with some of that.  I also contacted the realtor to let him know I'm getting ready to list the house.

[worthy]

I guess my pledge to myself is to do something every day toward my goal of getting-the-house-ready-to-sell-and-getting-us-ready-to-move.

Yesterday I freecycled a couple of huge pieces of drywall and a bunch of huge PVC drainage pipes.  Also dropped a bag of (good, healthy!) pantry clutter at the food shelf.

This morning I organized some metal recycling in our garage.  Need to have the metals guy come do a pickup sometime soon.  Broken screen door, etc.

While we were out today, a friend came and added another layer of drywall mud in a room we are fixing the walls in.  He is awesome and incredibly generous and helpful.  I'm sorry we weren't around to hang out (and feed him), but he left a note and we are one step closer to being able to paint that room.  Not my accomplishment, but I did initiate it, and I'm making sure it gets done, so it counts.

This evening I moved some huge long heavy pieces of waterlogged wood from a corner of our yard to a spot where they can better dry out so they can be properly disposed of.  It only took ten minutes and I did it while I was making dinner and had a lull (my kids called me back inside when the timer beeped.  LOL.)  My muscles are still aching from the weekend yard work.  It's great to get all the non-gardening yard stuff done NOW so I won't be torn between gardening and yard work come "true spring."

The hardware store is having a 29% off coupon on Feb. 29th.  Quick, I should figure out what I need for all the upcoming projects so I can get them all for 29% off!

[worthy]

Today I dug out more waterlogged logs in the yard and propped them up so they can dry and be disposed of.

I went down in the basement and filled two trash bags with debris.  Thursday is trash day; hoping the impending snow won't make it difficult to get the trash to the end of our road.

I cleaned the junk and laundry off the floor of my walk-in closet.  Went in later in the day and was totally stunned to find I could walk right in.  LOL.

Had my 13yo move a number of tubs of canning jars to the shed.

Baby steps, every day.

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I love hearing about everyone's progress!  I'm hoping to move at some point, maybe in the next year.  We share a duplex with my parents and we're committed to renting our half until they decide to retire and sell the house so that could be in a few months or even a few years.  In the meantime I'm working on getting everything ready to make the house look sellable and not have a ton of stuff to move.  It's a super tiny 2 bedroom house so at least we haven't been able to accumulate too crazy an amount of stuff.  Today DH and I went through our clothes.  He was able to get rid of 2 trash bags full!  And I've lost some weight so I was able to get rid of 3 pairs of jeans.  I went through my kitchen recently too and sold some Tupperware I wasn't using since I switched to glass a few years ago.  I'm thinking about getting rid of most of the kids' movies.  They are down to only one night of TV per week and realistically we can get our movies from our library.  Most of their movies are old VHS tapes we got from the dump anyway.  I also went through our CD's recently and got rid of most of them.  I'm so tired of listening to the same music and I mostly listen to Pandora.  Plus I can visit any library near me with my laptop and upload their CD's to my itunes.  I feel so free of stuff!!!

[worthy]

Yesterday we were expecting a snowstorm, so I tidied the yard, including moving a broken gas grill down to our patio next to our other gas grill so I'll be more likely to get rid of one or both of them when the snow melts (LOL - it will make me nuts to have them side-by-side.)

I moved the remaining containers of canning jars to the shed, and added some stuff to the "donate" bin.

My shopvac parts arrived and I vacuumed and further tidied our "gross" basement.  It's getting less gross all the time.  Yay.

I emptied out the laundry room closet and consolidated all the bins of clothes that need sorting and downsizing.  Project for this afternoon.

Today I finished tidying my walk-in closet.  I also decluttered my entire filing cabinet.  Go, me.  Recycled a lot of paper.

I sure do love a good snow day, or two or three (please?)